The closing ceremony was exactly the crappy committee designed shite that we all thought the opening ceremony would be. The fashion bit was cringeworthingly embarrassing. Russell Brand should never be allowed to sing again.

It would all have been made so much better if Always Look on the Bright Side of Life had been sung from a crucifix, as it should be.

There are some quarters unhappy with the notion that Russell Brand is still allowed to breathe.

Wonder how the Mail, Express and Torygraph are recovering from his performance. Don't supppose he had Jonathan Ross and Andrew Sachs as backing-singers and the latter's granddaughter dancing?

The only bits I've seen were on the news this morning: Spice Girls nailed to the roofs of "black" cabs (if only), The Who and a soul-scarring, eternity-lasting snippet of BJ and Call-Me-Dave danci...no, I really shouldn't corrupt that word...moving and clapping (approximately) in time with the music. I think I might have broken my TV's remote control trying to change channel when that last bit came on.

And finally, before the last squeal of feedback from Pete Townshend's hearing aid has faded into the night, we can all start picking over the Olympic carcass.

I was in the same mind space as Warren in watching the closing ceremonies. I know not to watch a multi-nation broadcast and expect subtlety and left of center reasoning, but each time they picked a good artist, they had to re-construct it, and the artists who did participate made me think "Oh, wouldn't it be cooler if they got FILL IN THE BLANK instead, that would be so much more impactful!" (Exceptions being Madness and the Pet Shop Boys, who both seemed to know exactly how to pull it off).

I saw Fatboy Slim and thought "well, good for him, but wouldn't it be cool to have Roni Size or Goldie or Tricky up there?" I really didn't have a problem with George Michael, as global pop is one of Britain's best exports, but man, that 'stache was killing me. Overall, I would have liked to see more focus on the innovators rather than the adapters, but again, what did I expect at an Olympic ceremony? It's not a music festival. But it was a missed opportunity to show how much cool stuff the UK has brought to the world music scene.

The second is of a woman who finished her 100-meter heat in less than 15 seconds after eight years of convincing her family and her nation that it was okay for a Muslim woman to leave the house and run as fast as her conviction would take her. Just four reporters, all of us from different countries, were standing there underneath the stadium, straddling a hip-high barrier separating the athletes and journalists, and I don’t think any of us was waiting for her when she walked up to us.

“My taxi driver throw me out on the street when I told him I was training for Olympics,” said Tahmina Kohistani, Afghanistan’s only woman at the Games, in the halting English she had learned through mail-order language courses. “He said, ‘Get behind the man. You are disgrace to Muslim women.’ My coach fought other men outside the stadium where I train because they do not think I should run. But my country will remember me forever one day. They will see I am the right one and other girls will watch me and I will tell them, ‘Come, run with me. Run with me, Tahmina.’”

About 25 minutes later, after we heard the most harrowing journey anyone could have taken to run 100 meters at the Games, one of the male reporters began weeping. He finally said, “You’re a hero. You’re a hero to your country and women everywhere.” Beneath her hijab, Tahmina sheepishly said, “Thank you,” and began to cry. We were all choked up and didn’t know what else to say.

As I type this now, I still don’t know what to say, except that I knew in that very moment, for one of the few times in my job, I was in the presence of a greatness and a courage as real and inspiring as anything I’ve ever seen in sports or life.

“Hey, who was that?” a colleague of mine from the United States asked.

I opened my mouth, but I couldn’t talk. I just walked a few steps away, turned away from him, and started crying — for a woman who finished 31st in the world in her event. A minute later, when he came to see if I was okay, he asked again, “Who was that?”

We’ve enjoyed past Olympic openings and closings, and some of the sports.But the quality of the past two or three Olympics has been a great disappointment.The entertainment of this latest Olympics was dark, loud, sexualized with scanty clothes and revealing cleavage on women, and with disturbing pagan noise. Connecting children, beds plus frightening villains made one think of pedophiles.The black and red colors of sex and violence dominated most of the closing. The nuns were obviously there to mock Christianity while one could only think of Satan being glorified.The comical entrance of the queen was one of the few bright spots.Past Olympics had spectacular bright, cheerful and family-style entertainment but the English seem to have put teens who worship Satan in charge. It was disgraceful and we suffered through them hoping for some improvement.Some of the clothes the competitors wore also reflect the sexualized entertainment.The male swimmers look unprofessional with their hip-huggers trunks stopping just above their pubic region, as also the women’s track and volleyball with their underwear-bikinis.All are offensive and degrading. These styles are also now worn in our schools and colleges, which no one seems to have objected to.The girls’ gymnastics also are sexualized in their swimsuits and are too tight around the buttocks plus partially expose their butts.We had enough with all the sexuality which took away any enjoyment to watch so we only watched the entertainment.Rio Di Janeiro has nothing better to offer with more dark juvenile entertainment and women parading around sexually, displaying cleavage and little talent.